ARGH (Autodidactic Radical Gathering of Homeschoolers) is a gathering by and for unschoolers of all ages. This organic event relies on the participants to create the activities, making every event completely unique.
Connecting with others interested in unschooling and the whole-wide-world helps build community, enrich our learning experiences, develops new friendships and encourages a lot of FUN!

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Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Since the choices of accomodations at this new location are varied there are several options for your stay. Springmaid Mountain is fine with allowing us to bring air mattresses to increase the number of people we can put in the cabins but we don’t want them overflowing so much that we risk damaging the property. So please be respectful of their generosity when occupying the cabins. THERE ARE NO PETS ALLOWED IN ANY CABINS. Also, there is no Wi-Fi available on the mountain.

Single Family Cabins - These cabins are small but if you want to try to fit 2 families you can.

Smaller Single Family Cabins, 4 to choose from - $425

Sweet Bay Campground Cabins (2)

Cozy one bedroom cabins, convenient to the campground, pond and hiking trails. Cabins have one queen size bed, living room, wood stove, kitchen and one bath.

Trillium Mountain Efficiencies (2)

Efficiencies have two queen beds, one bathroom and a kitchenette. Convenient to trout ponds and hiking trails.

The Efficiencies have a stove, refrigerator, microwave, coffee pot, toaster and sink area. It is just a small kitchen with a table with seating for 4 people. One big room with 2 queen beds, a sitting area, and the kitchenette. The bathroom is the only room separate from the rest of the inside of the cabin.

Larger Single Family Cabins, 6 to choose from - $450

River’s Edge Cabins (4)

Newly remodled duplexes with levels rented together or separate. Connecting stairs allow for privacy or togetherness. Convenient to fishing pond and waterfall hiking trails. Cabin includes a living room with wood stove, kitchen, two bedrooms (one with a queen, the other with two twins) and 1 ½ baths. Lower levels have a porch for rocking and relaxing.

Wrangler and Angler Ponside Cabins (2)

Newly remodled cabins are secluded and have a relaxing view of the fishing pond and quiet mountainside. Each cabin has 2 bedrooms, one queen and two twin beds, living room, wood stove, kitchen, a shower and 2 half baths. The Angler Pondside Cabin is handicapped accessible.

Shared Family Cabins – These are much larger cabins and can accommodate several families easily. To make sure that we cover costs and have a nice sized gathering I have set a minimum number of families for each of these cabins. The cost for sharing a cabin is $275 per family. This cost is for whole families, if you are bringing extra guests please add $25 per person added to your family.

Trillium Mountain Suite (1)

The Trillium Suite is adjacent to the Trillium Efficiency cabins and is convenient to the trout ponds and hiking trails. Horse stables are only a five minute walk from the Trillium complex. The Suite has 3 bedrooms, four twin beds and one queen bed, a living room, wood stove, kitchen, two baths and balcony. A minimum of 3 families can rent this cabin.

Saddle Ridge Overlook (1)

This cabin is a beautiful retreat at the top of the property with spectacular views. There are 3 bedrooms, one queen and four twin beds, great room, fireplace, kitchen, dishwasher, washer/dryer, 2 ½ baths, front and back porches with swing and rockers, and separate gazebo. A minimum of 3 families can rent this cabin.

Timber Oaks Lodge (1)

This rustic, five bedroom cabin is the most centrally located cabin and includes 5 bedrooms, eight twin beds and two queens, a great room, wood stove, kitchen, dishwasher, washer/dryer and 3 baths. This cabin is quite spacious! A minimum of 5 families can rent this cabin.

The Bunkhouse

A dormitory-style bunk cabin with accomadations suitable for both youth and adult groups. There is a commercial kitchen and a large multipurpose room, 16 rooms (with doors that lock from the inside but no individual keys) with 1 bunkbed in each room (32 beds), fireplace, washer/dryer, and four baths (2 with showers).

This is where we will be holding all of our community activities. Anyone who would like to stay at the bunkhouse will share bathrooms, kitchen and living spaces. The cost to stay is $150 per family or $60 per person. This might be a fun place for teens to stay but the common area IS NOT a specific youth hang out place although everyone will certainly be hanging out there during community activities. While our previous community space had specific hours of use, we have the bunkhouse full time. BUT, there will be community hours for the use of the space to give those who are staying there some quiet time as well. The kitchen space (and the food therein) is to be respected and not for community use. Snacks for community use will be provided by us on a table in the common area, anyone is welcome to add to it at any time.

In the past we have had a hang out cabin for the kids. With the limited number of cabins available at this location, having such a space is not feasible. One thing I’ve noticed over the years is that the kids in the hang out cabin tend to have small clusters of kids hanging out with each other and not one large group. If one family of each of these small clusters would like to volunteer their cabin for occasional hanging out that would work nicely. Our cabin has always been an alternate hang out space and we always welcome it and enjoy hosting whoever wants to hang out with us. This won’t change with the new location, so as long as one of us is there feel free to stop by.

It has taken some time but I finally have a new location for our gathering. As with moves of all kinds, it comes with some changes, and I hope we can all embrace these changes and see how ARGH evolves from here on out. In the next few days I will lay out the new costs and details. I'm hoping that for most people the cost will be less! There will be several lodging choices with lots of sharing options as well as the option to have a single family cabin, there is also a very cost effective choice of staying in the bunkhouse, which will also be our meeting space as it has a large open area and a commercial kitchen and bathrooms etc. on the bottom floor. This is not like the huge conference center we have come accustomed to at Roan Mountain but I think it will work nicely. There is also a campground area with tent and RV spaces available. I will put all of the details together and put it on the list soon.

The new dates for the Spring Gathering are May 6th-9th, 2012.

The location is Springmaid Mountain in Spruce Pine, NC.

This location will require a deposit so I will be letting you know as soon as I know when the deposit will be due.

They also have horse riding and hayrides available which they will give us a discount on, but that can be paid for individually and onsite if anyone decides they would like to do this. OR if there is enough interest ahead of time I can go ahead and plan either of these events and put it on the schedule, but again, it will be extra.

I'm pretty excited about the new location and I hope you all will love it too!

Peace in the New Year and all the growth and changes that will come with it for our group and for all of you and your families,